Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech)Feb 23, 2017 · Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech) OPAG . Atlanta, GA ....

Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech)

OPAG Atlanta, GA February 23, 2017

PresenterPresentation NotesI’m going to give you all a whirlwind tour of the LUVOIR mission concept.

There’s a lot to cover – science, technology, and the study itself.

But I’ll go into some more detail on the part I think will interest this group most, which is the search for life on the world around other stars.

We’re in the process of making a number of science and instrument choices, and I hope to tap your expertise to help us. CLICK

Crab Nebula with HST ACS/WFC Credit: NASA / ESA What is LUVOIR ?

Large UV / Optical / Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR)

A space telescope concept in tradition of Hubble

Broad science capabilities Far-UV to Near-IR bandpass ~ 8 – 16 m aperture diameter Suite of imagers and spectrographs Serviceable and upgradable

“Space Observatory for the 21st Century” Decades of science

Ability to answer questions we have not yet conceived Big Bang to Biosignatures: The LUVOIR Mission Concept 2 March 3, 2017

PresenterPresentation NotesLet’s begin with a high-level overview of what the LUVOIR mission is. The acronym stands for “Large UV / Optical / Infrared Surveyor”. This particular mission concept came out of the 2013 NASA Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap, but it has roots in a number of other concepts going back many years.

LUVOIR is a concept for a mission in the tradition of Hubble, multi-wavelength with very broad science capabilities. As you might expect from the name, it’s ambitious. The range of telescope apertures to be considered is about 8 to 16 meters. LUVOIR will also carry several very different kinds of instruments at once.

Furthermore, we envisage LUVOIR as a serviceable and upgradable facility lasting for decades, like Hubble. This will allow it to remain at the forefront of space science for an extended period and give it the power to answer scientific questions we have not yet conceived.

Our community study chair Brad Peterson like to call it “the space observatory for the twenty-first century”. He frequently notes that of HST’s 10 greatest discoveries (according to National Geographic) , only one was listed as an initial goal for the mission. CLICK

Hubble Ultra Deep Field (ultra-deep imaging)

Imagine astronomy without Hubble …

Big Bang to Biosignatures: The LUVOIR Mission Concept 3 March 3, 2017

Eagle Nebula (high resolution over wide field)

Jupiter’s aurora (UV, global monitoring)

PresenterPresentation NotesI’d like to take a moment to look back and think about some of the science that was uniquely enabled by HST.

In each of these cases, HST provided an observing capability that would not have been available from ground based facilities:

High-resolution imaging over wide fields of view,

UV observations, and

Ultra-sensitive observations including images of the faintest galaxies in the early universe. CLICK

Imagine astronomy with LUVOIR …


PresenterPresentation NotesNow let’s imagine astronomy with a facility like LUVOIR. On the left are input images of a hypothetical “Planet 9” in the Solar System out at 1000 AU from the Sun (assuming it exists) and a distant galaxy.

In the second column is how they would look to Hubble.

In the next columns are how they would look to 6 meter optical space telescope and to a 18 m space telescope.

This helps to convey the power of a large space facility like LUVOIR. CLICK

Monitoring Solar System ocean moons


UV oxygen emission from Europa water vapor jets

observed with HST

Credit: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne

For illustration …

HST resolution

2.4-m

LUVOIR resolution

16-m 9-m

PresenterPresentation NotesAnd here is my personal favorite solar system remote sensing science case for LUVOIR.

This image shows UV auroral emission from Europa observed with HST. The oxygen emission comes from dissociation of water vapor in jets emanating from the surface.

We don’t yet have a good simulation of what LUVOIR would see in such a scenario. But to get an idea, these circles show the spatial resolution of HST and LUVOIR. I had to make the HST circle bigger than the resolution of the oxygen image, otherwise the LUVOIR circles were too tiny to see.

With LUVOIR, one could monition the ocean worlds of the outer solar system for such activity and resolve the individual jets. CLICK

Imaging and spectroscopy of Earth 2.0


Inner working angle ~ 4 λ / D

Solar System from 13 parcsec with coronagraph and 12-m telescope

Credit: L. Pueyo / M. N’Diaye / A. Roberge

PresenterPresentation NotesNow I’ll go into more depth on LUVOIR exoplanet science cases.

Possibly the most important goal for the mission is to find true Earth analog exoplanets around nearby solar-type stars and search them for signs of life. To do that, we’ll need to directly image Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of those stars.

This is a simulation of the inner Solar System viewed at optical wavelengths from a distance of 13 parcsec with a 12-m LUVOIR. The enormous glare from the central star has been suppressed with a coronagraph so the faint planets can be seen. CLICK

Jupiter, Earth, and Venus are visible outside the inner working angle, within which nothing can be imaged because of suppression by the coronagraph mask. The inner working angle of a coronagraph is proportional to the wavelength of observation over the telescope diameter.

Interestingly, Venus has an unexpected blue-ish color. This is because Venus is right at the coronagraph inner working angle. So the IWA is smaller in the blue than the red, and more of the red light is blocked, distorting the planet’s color. CLICK

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Jupiter

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‘Planet 9’

NUV Diffraction Limit Detection Threshold

The LUVOIR diffraction limit would exceed HST by a factor of up to or greater than 5 into the NUV. The combination of aperture and technology improvement targets will increase the sensitivity limit of LUVOIR by a factor of 50-100 times over HST.

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Resolvable Features

At Jupiter the visible resolution of LUVOIR would enable monitoring of surface features on the Galilean satellites at a spatial resolution comparable to Voyager. In the UV, the increased sensitivity and spatial resolution would permit characterization of auroral features.

Small scale features can be resolved spectrally with integral field capability.

At the distance of Neptune and Pluto LUVOIR will enable coarse mapping of icy body surfaces and monitoring of atmospheric dynamics.

The LUVOIR instruments


Vector vortex coronagraph (Credit: D. Mawet)

Suppress star

Transmit planet

Observational challenge

Faint planets next to bright stars

Solution

Optical / Near-IR Coronagraph

Contrast < 10-10 to observe exoEarths Low resolution spectroscopy (R > 150) Bandpass: 0.2 μm to 2.4 μm Tech development via WFIRST

coronagraph

PresenterPresentation NotesNow I’m going to turn to the LUVOIR instruments we’ve chosen and their capabilities. …

CLICK



Observational challenge No UV through Earth’s atmosphere

Solution

LUMOS

Far-UV to near-UV spectroscopy High resolution (R ~ 105) spectroscopy Med. res. multi-object spectroscopy Near-UV imaging Major upgrade of HST STIS HST STIS UV instrument

Europa aurora w/ HST



Observational challenge Imaging wide fields at high resolution

Solution

High-Definition Imager

2 x 3 arcmin field-of-view Optical to near-IR bandpass Possibly high precision astrometry to

measure planet masses Major upgrade of HST WFC3

HST Wide Field Camera 3

Pluto 15-m simulation



Observational challenge Measuring warm molecules present in

Earth’s atmosphere

Solution

Optical / Near-IR Spectrograph

Multiple resolutions up to R ~ 105

High photometric precision for transits Possibly high precision RV to measure

planet masses Ground-based analogs in development

ESPRESSO spectrograph for VLT (Credit: ESO)

Pluto & Charon w/ HST (Credit: Grundy & Buie 2002)

LUVOIR online simulation tools in development


http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/tools/

http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/tools/

How we’re doing the study Four large mission concept studies started in Jan

2016 to prepare for Astro2020 Decadal Survey

LUVOIR Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) Origins Space Telescope (aka. Far-IR Surveyor) X-Ray Surveyor

Two LUVOIR mission architectures to be studied Aperture sizes chosen Nov 2016: 15-m and ~ 9-m

Study office and engineering team at GSFC


Science and Technology Definition Team 24 voting members from community 8 non-voting reps. of international space agencies

Six Community Working Groups Exoplanets Cosmic Origins Solar System Simulations Communications Technology

Four Instrument Teams

How we’re doing the study


Planetary Working Groups KBOS: Silvia Protopapa and Alex Parker Comets: Dennis Bodewits and Gerbs Bauer Planetary atmospheres: Geronimo Villanueva & Walt

Harris Asteroids/small bodies: Andy Rivkin & Britney Schmidt Icy moons: Britney Schmidt Geology/geophysics: Noah Petro & Britney Schmidt We are seeking inputs!

Groups briefed: DPS, SBAG, OPAG

How we’re doing the study


18

STDT voting members

March 3, 2017 Big Bang to Biosignatures: The LUVOIR Mission Concept

Debra Fischer (Yale)

Brad Peterson (Ohio State / STScI)

Jacob Bean (Chicago)

Daniela Calzetti (U Mass)

Rebekah Dawson (Penn State)

Courtney Dressing (Caltech)

Lee Feinberg (NASA GSFC)

Kevin France (Colorado)

Olivier Guyon (Arizona)

Walter Harris (Arizona / LPL)

Mark Marley (NASA Ames)

Leonidas Moustakas (JPL)

John O’Meara (St. Michael’s)

Vikki Meadows (Washington)

Ilaria Pascucci (Arizona)

Marc Postman (STScI)

Laurent Pueyo (STScI)

David Schiminovich (Columbia)

David Redding (JPL)

Jane Rigby (NASA GSFC)

Aki Roberge (NASA GSFC)

Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech)

Karl Stapelfeldt (JPL)

Jason Tumlinson (STScI)

Face-to-face meetings


4th meeting Apr 17 – 18, 2017 at JPL

Observers welcome at all LUVOIR meetings & telecons

Summary


LUVOIR has multiple primary science goals

① Habitable exoplanets & biosignatures

② Broad range of general astrophysics and Solar System observations

Challenge is to blend goals into single powerful mission

LUVOIR will provide a statistical study of Goal 1, factors of ~ 100 increased science grasp over Hubble for Goal 2

Wide range of capabilities to enable decades of future investigations and unexpected discoveries

PresenterPresentation NotesStatements on cost if asked:

We don’t know what LUVOIR will cost. We’ll find out during this study and the Decadal Survey must judge whether the mission’s broad and revolutionary science is worth it. We’re going to demonstrate the scalability of the architecture by studying two sizes of LUVOIR.

However, I’ll point out that the telescope was only 17% of the total cost of JWST. Having a warm LUVOIR telescope will save a lot of the costs JWST incurred for being cryogenic. In sum, it is not straightforward to intuit the total cost of a mission by extrapolating based on a single parameter.

Big Bang to Biosignatures: The LUVOIR Mission ConceptWhat is LUVOIR ?Imagine astronomy without Hubble …Imagine astronomy with LUVOIR …Monitoring Solar System ocean moonsImaging and spectroscopy of Earth 2.0Slide Number 7Slide Number 8Slide Number 9The LUVOIR instrumentsThe LUVOIR instrumentsThe LUVOIR instrumentsThe LUVOIR instrumentsLUVOIR online simulation tools in developmentHow we’re doing the studyHow we’re doing the studyHow we’re doing the studySTDT voting membersFace-to-face meetingsSummary

Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech)Feb 23, 2017 · Britney Schmidt (Georgia Tech) OPAG . Atlanta, GA ....

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